Paulo Coelho Tests ‘Pay as You Wish’ Model for 2 Books on His Blog

The bestselling author of “The Alchemist” put free e-copies of two of his books on his blog this week. He is asking readers to decide later whether the works were worth purchasing, and if so, to name their price. The Brazilian-born author, who posted “Manual of the Warrior of Light” in English and “Brida” in Portuguese, wrote: “If you like the text, please buy it—so we can tell the publishing industry that this idea does not harm the business.”

“Manual,” a previously published collection of stories and inspirational thoughts, is not available in its entirety. Mr. Coelho said he had access to 4/5ths of the book. “Manual” also is free on the publishing website Inkitt, where Mr. Coelho refers to the downloads as a “reverse method of bookselling.”

This isn’t the first pay-what-you-want pop culture moment.

In 2007, Radiohead released “In Rainbows” on the band’s website, available to listeners for whatever they wanted to pay. Those who decided to buy it could click on the words: “It’s Up To You,” followed by “It’s Really Up To You” on the second click. The album was Radiohead’s first release after the end of its contract with EMI. In 2011, the band self-released its next album, “The King of Limbs,” but it did not offer free downloads. According to the site Music Ally, there were three million purchases of “In Rainbows” as of October 2008, including CDs, box sets and downloads from the band’s website and other digital music sellers. Total sales figures are unclear but it was lauded in the music industry as a success.

The free digital-book idea hasn’t exactly caught on. A new website called OpenBooks.com allows readers to download self-published titles, share the books as much as they want and pay only what they decide the works are worth. On Wednesday, the site’s top-selling thriller, “Project Moses” by Robert B. Lowe, racked up just three paid contributions from 547 downloads. OpenBooks suggests a price of $1.99 for the book.

Another site, Total BooX, lets readers download free titles and pay based on how much of the book they read. The buy-as-you-read service values each page as a proportion of the book’s full sales price.

“We keep tabs when you read, and deduct from your balance only the value of the pages read,” the Total Boox website said. “Portions you skip, or pages you flip through quickly are not deducted.”